All You Need Is Love: The Green Bay Packers Shock Many And Draft Quarterback Jordan Love

Brett Favre was 35 years, 6 months and 13 days when the Green Bay Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers to be his successor on April 23, 2005.

On Thursday, Rodgers was 36 years, 4 months and 21 days when the Packers drafted his successor.

Green Bay used its first-round selection — the 26^th pick overall — to draft quarterback Jordan Love of Utah State.

Much like Rodgers did early in his career, Love can sit and learn for at least a year, then take over the quarterbacking duties.

“I’m just super excited,” Love said afterwards. “It’s just all excitement right now.”

Love excelled under coach Matt Wells in 2018, when he threw 32 touchdowns, just six interceptions, completed 64.0% of his passes and threw for 3,567 yards. Wells left for Texas Tech, though, was replaced by former University of Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen, and Love struggled.

In 2019, Love threw 20 touchdowns, a concerning 17 interceptions and averaged just 7.2 yards per throw. Love had six games with multiple interceptions and had three picks returned for touchdowns.

Some blamed the talent around Love and the coaching change, but his decision making a year ago was abysmal. In addition, Love was cited for marijuana possession in December, but the case was later dismissed.

“The biggest difference for me was obviously the turnovers, they went up,” Love said at the NFL Combine. “I was trying to do too much and force the ball downfield, thinking I could make throws into tight windows. There were situations where I could have checked the ball down, but I was trying to make that play.

“Some of the games, we got into situations where we got down, and I did feel like I had to make those plays. As a team, we knew that – we knew we have to make plays to get back in the game.”

Love’s physical characteristics and arm strength had quarterback-needy teams salivating before the draft. His accuracy and reckless choices throwing the ball in 2019 had those same teams equally terrified.

Love has fantastic arm talent, can throw from several arm slots, has nifty touch on deep balls and has extremely large hands. Love’s confidence is sky-high, he’s a natural thrower and he has terrific scrambling ability.

Love seemed to lack anticipation, though, and was slow in his reads last season. Love has a long windup and will stare receivers down. At times, Love bailed on plays before he needed to and his accuracy declined in 2019.

Love’s physical gifts and flashes of brilliance, though, excited many teams. Green Bay was clearly one of those.

“His size, speed, athleticism and arm talent is everything you’re looking for at any level,” former Utah State offensive coordinator Mike Sanford said of Love. “The thing I didn’t know until I really started getting to know Jordan and working with him is how many intangibles he possesses.

“The life experiences he brings to his time here at Utah State and what preceded his time here and the toughness he has physically and mentally, I have a lot of respect for Jordan in every way and the way he carries himself and the kind of teammate he is. I can’t say enough about Jordan as a person.”

What this says about Rodgers — and his future in Green Bay — remains to be seen.

Rodgers threw for 26 touchdowns, had four interceptions and lost four fumbles in 2019. He also threw for more than 4,000 yards for the eighth time in his career.

Overall, though, Rodgers’ first year in coach Matt LaFleur’s system was up and down.

Rodgers’ passer rating was 95.4, his third-lowest since becoming a starter in 2008. His completion percentage (62.0%) and yards per attempt (7.0) were also the second-lowest in that time.

In the second half of the 2019 campaign, Rodgers had a passer rating of just 84.2. And in the last three regular season games, he completed an un-Rodgers like 53.9% of his passes.

Rodgers was a big part of Green Bay’s 14-4 season that included an NFC North division championship and a win over Seattle in the divisional playoffs.

For the fourth time in four trips to the NFC Championship Game, though, Rodgers delivered a forgettable performance. This time, the result was a 37-20 Green Bay loss at San Francisco.

In the first half alone, Rodgers threw an interception, fumbled twice and lost one. The Packers turned the ball over just 13 times all year, but Rodgers gave it away twice in the first 30 minutes.

“I was raised by Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said before the draft. “If there’s a quarterback we think can play, that’s a starter in the National Football League, we’ll never pass that up.”

That was the case Thursday night — when the Packers found their quarterback of the future.